(December 25, 1930 - July 17, 2009) was a leading
Ufologist and proponent of the
extraterrestrial hypothesis to explain
UFO
sightings; he has also written numerous books and articles dealing with the role
of women in the
American Civil War. On the morning of July 17, 2009, Richard Hall died after
a long battle with cancer, according to
ufologist Jerome
Clark and
anomalist Patrick Huyghe.

He held a
bachelor's degree in
philosophy
from
Tulane University in
New
Orleans. He lived most of his life in the
Washington, D.C. area.

From 1958 to 1969 he worked for the National Investigations Committee on
Aerial Phenomena (NICAP),
one of the most prominent and influential UFO civilian research groups in
American history. He began as executive secretary, and eventually became NICAP's
assistant director. In this role Hall was both an eyewitness and participant to
much of the early history of the UFO phenomenon in the
United States. Working with NICAP director
Donald Keyhoe, he helped lobby the
United States Congress to hold public hearings and investigations into the
UFO phenomenon. In 1964 Hall researched, edited, and wrote much of The UFO
Evidence, a compendium of the best UFO sightings and incidents of the 1940s,
1950's, and early 1960s. A copy of The UFO Evidence was sent to every
member of Congress in 1964, and the book is still regarded by many UFO
researchers and historians as one of the best UFO books ever published.

Following Keyhoe's ouster as NICAP director in 1969, Hall left NICAP to work
as a
technical writer and editor. He continued to work in the UFO field. He
served as the director of the
Fund for UFO Research, which provides
grant money to legitimate researchers working in UFO studies. He has also
been the editor of the MUFON Journal, the official publication of the
Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the largest civilian UFO group in America today.
In 2001 he wrote a sequel to The UFO Evidence; it covered major UFO
incidents from the mid-1960s through the 1990s. He was also the chief editor of
the Journal of UFO History, which is published six times per year. Hall
was a strong proponent of the theory that UFOs are
extraterrestrial spacecraft from an advanced alien civilization, and he was
an active member of the "UFO Updates" message board and website.

To supplement his income as a UFO researcher, Hall worked for many years as
an abstractor-indexer for the Congressional Information Service in
Bethesda, Maryland. A member of the
Authors Guild, Hall also published numerous books and magazine articles
dealing with the role of women in the
American Civil War, and he maintained a strong interest in Civil War history
through his life. (From
Wikipedia)

He was the author of three major UFO works: The
UFO Evidence, The UFO Evidence, Volume II: A Thirty Year Report, and
Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of UFO Sightings, Alien Encounters &
Coverups and numerous UFO articles.
Hall's landmark book The UFO Evidence is a must-read for anyone with even a
slight interest in UFOs.-RMIII